Juliet's First Easter

Since Juliet is only (almost!) six months old, I decided not to go all out with Easter.  The most important part of the day for us was going to church since it is the most important holiday for Christians.  For her Easter dress, we put her in a pretty pink smocked dress that the Troop Adjutant General and his wife gave us when Juliet was born.  The TAG is the highest ranking officer of the Florida National Guard and is essentially Ray's big boss.  He and his wife are very kind and gracious, and they always ask about Juliet when we see them.  This dress also came with some real-life pantaloons (not bloomers, actual pantaloons) and a hilarious bow that I clipped into Juliet's mohawk (but that wouldn't stay).

We spent the morning trying to get Juliet to crawl for real (unsuccessfully) and trying to get pictures or video of her in her various stages of attempts.  I honestly took probably 20 pictures and five videos.  May I please present to you the world's best baby plank:

"Hurry up and take the picture!  I can't hold this much longer!"

She is so, so, so close to crawling, and it is so exciting and cute.  I can't wait!

After a morning of speed and agility training, we went to church.  Juliet was excellent as usual.  Sometimes, I worry.  She is so well-behaved at church that I feel like she'll be terrible as a toddler.  There is just no way she can continue to be this good in church. She either goes to sleep or she smiles and coos and charms everyone around her.

Church ran a little long because of the Easter cantata, so we got a late start to lunch with the Handley crew.  But once we were all there, we had a nice time.  Our nieces were so sweet to Juliet, all wanting to hold her and/or watch her crawl.  Holland, who is two, was very helpful when Juliet kept spitting out her pacifier.  Holland got down on the floor with Juliet and kept shoving the pacifier (upside down) in Juliet's mouth.  And she calls Juliet "Dude-jet."  It was hilarious.

We hid eggs for the big girls twice after everything dried out (it poured during church), and it made me so excited to think about Juliet hunting for eggs next year.  She'll still be little, but I know it will be so fun to help and watch her.

Happy baby girl laughing at Dad

I took 12 pictures of the girls, and this was the closest to "good."  It's very hard to get four girls under 10 all looking in the same direction and smiling at the same time.

Tomorrow, our baby girl will be six months old.  It's so strange.  It feels like just yesterday that I was pregnant and trying to be patient while waiting on her to come.  And yet, Ray and I both said yesterday that we really can't remember what life was like before we had a kid.  All we were really able to come up with was that we had a lot more free time, and we were all a little thinner.  It's been an awesome five months and thirty days! :)

"I Like to Move It Move It"

Juliet is trying so hard to crawl, and she is so very close.  She can move herself around pretty well, but she can't quite technically crawl.

If she's on her back, she just manages to scoot herself up by kicking and scooting.

She also does this hilarious head swerving thing that is reminiscent of an old dance move (The Snake).  Of course, she won't do it normally when we put the camera on her, but here's a small taste:

She has several methods for moving if she's on her stomach.

Method One
Assume plank position.  Tiptoe yourself forward a little and then face plant.  Repeat.

Method Two
Get on your hands and knees.  Face plant yourself forward.  Repeat.  Stop after two moves, reach for the toys you can't quite get in a full on Superman pose.  Get really mad that you still can't reach it and cry your "I'm an angry baby" cry.

Method Three (most effective movement)
Use your super baby strength to push up and then push yourself backwards until you either run into something that stops you, you realize you're getting further away from that thing you were trying to reach, or you end up on the wood floor and feel the need to freak out.

On Wednesday, I put her on a towel on the floor and went into the nursery to put some of her clothes away.  In under 60 seconds, she was flipping out, so I stepped into the living room to see what was going on.  She had backed herself completely off the towel and managed to turn herself 90 degrees.  I started laughing at her, and she stopped screaming and joined me laughing.

Throwing a fit

Proud of herself 10 seconds after throwing a fit

We are so excited about her progress.  Everyone who has kids tells us to enjoy this time while it lasts because she'll always be where we left her.  As soon as she starts to crawl, that will no longer be true.  They are probably right, but we cannot wait to see her face when she finally crawls towards the objects she wants so badly to put in her mouth.  :)

Random Things I Don't Have a Topic For

I have a couple of pictures and videos to share, but they are all unrelated and none are really worthy of an entire blog post.  So, I'm just going to stick them all in this post.

This first picture makes me smile every single time I see it.  This is so typical of our lives these days.  On the weekends, we tend to be lazy by staying in bed till 9.  On this particular day, I went ahead and got Juliet dressed and then brought her back to hang out with her dad in bed while I cooked us breakfast.  I love how she's relaxing like her dad.

This picture was from later on that day.  It's our Wolverine Baby wearing her wolverine onesie.  (And, yes, the wolverine does also look like a honey badger.  We find both to be acceptable interpretations.)  If you look, you can see where she spit up all over herself right before I snapped this picture.  I cannot tell you how perfectly she times these things.

I got this video of Juliet talking to herself one night after bath time.  I mentioned in this post how she enjoyed talking to herself.  I got another cute video of it.

Last one... Juliet really loves bath time still, and I love giving her a bath every single night.  It's often my favorite time to spend with her.  She kept staring at the bright orange warning sticker on her bath seat - it's so neat to watch her look at bright colors and patterns.  She much prefers those to plain, muted solids.

Best Invention EVER

So maybe it's not the best invention ever.  I mean, I feel like sliced bread is pretty good.  And I definitely appreciate the refrigerator.  Beer is wonderfully delicious on a boat in the summertime.  But the monkey jumper Leah passed down to us is the greatest.  It keeps Juliet entertained so that we can cook supper, wash dishes, get ourselves clean, and take care of anything else around the house we need to do.  In addition to helping us out, it's also allowing Juliet to learn all kinds of new things.  In her monkey jumper, she has practiced grabbing things and pulling them to her, chewing on anything she can get in her mouth, cause and effect (discussed in the Five Months post), and... tonight... she figured out how to legitimately jump up and down repeatedly. 

It takes her a while to get over her distraction with the light on the camera, but once she did... She went to town.  It is so incredibly fun to watch her grow and change and learn and laugh.  I feel like the luckiest mom alive.

Road Trip!

We took Juliet on her first over night trip this past weekend.  One of our clients at work was the sponsor of a beer fest in Tampa, so I got to attend the festival.  Ray and I decided that it would be a nice trip for us - not too far away, a place we enjoy going, and a chance to see our friends Austin and Katrina.  After deciding to go, it then occurred to us that perhaps a baby wouldn't be allowed at a beer fest, so I checked with the guy coordinating the event, and he said that as long as we didn't feed Juliet beer, we'd be good to go.

Juliet was passed out in the baby backpack contraption.  But not passed out from drinking beer!  Just passed out from being a tired baby.  We definitely did not give her beer.

With very few exceptions, the trip was perfect.  Juliet did well in the car on the way down, and Ray and I became even more grateful that she's a power-eater.  Our stop to feed her took a total of 20 minutes. 

It was quite chilly in Tampa on Saturday, so we were sure to bundle Juliet up in her bunny jacket, and off we went.  Almost everyone was very supportive of our decision to bring the baby out.  We had one couple stop us and tell us about their two-year-old twins whom they'd left at home for the first time that day.  They told us that for the first year, they didn't do anything with the kids.  They just stayed at home.  They praised us for doing things right by getting out with the baby.  We only got one "WTF?!" look, and it was from some girl who looked like she'd probably used a fake ID to get in, so I don't really care what she thought.

Juliet not drinking beer.

Chilling with Dad on the couch after the beer fest.

We brought the pack and play to the hotel for Juliet to sleep in.  I think it was moderately successful.  I didn't sleep well because every time she moved or made any noise, I woke up.  I really don't know how people co-sleep.  I now understand why they co-sleep (because Juliet is the snuggliest thing ever), but I don't understand how.  She woke up a lot, too, which is very unusual for her.  I theorized that it was because the pack and play mattress wasn't as soft as her crib mattress, but Ray thought perhaps she was just a little cold.  Her nursery at home is the warmest room in the house, and our hotel room was definitely cooler than what she's used to.

Hanging out on the big bed before we went out to dinner with Austin and Katrina (and Zoey).

The only real issue we had on the trip was the ride back.  In our effort to get home fairly early, we left at a time that meant we'd have to feed Juliet twice on the road.  The first feeding went pretty well, but then we had a lot of struggles.  Juliet got pretty fussy in her car seat, and it took a steady stream of peek-a-boo and other entertainment from me to keep her from crying a ton.  She took a 15-minute nap at one point, and I thought we were in the clear.  Yeah.... not so much. She woke up crying fast.  So we pulled over and I got her out of the car seat to change her, thinking maybe that was the problem.  It was.  And it was a bigger problem than I thought.  The exact second I got her pants back on her after the diaper change, she filled up the new diaper.  The good news is that Ray and I were laughing so hard we were crying at the comedy of the situation.

Lunch was also challenging.  We stopped about 30 minutes before Juliet normally eats because she was still really, really fussy.  We were hoping to do a quick feed and get back on the road.  Juliet had other plans for us.  After feeding her, I tried to put her back in her car seat, and she lost her mind.  So we decided to just take a break.  We took Juliet inside the Wendy's in Lake City and had a nice family lunch.  Juliet sat in a high chair for the first time (and I failed to take a picture) while Ray and I ate our lunch.  When we got back in the car, she went in with no issues.  I guess she just needed to get out and stretch her legs for a little while.  I can't really blame her.

We had a really good time, and it was really nice to have a quick weekend away with our little family.  I'm looking forward to doing it again soon for sure!

Five Months

I cannot believe Juliet is five months old.  Time has really flown by, and it feels like I was just waddling around 10 months pregnant with my feet so swollen only flip flops would fit.

Our baby girl is growing and changing constantly.  This month, she has:

• Grown to 25 inches long (40th percentile)
• Gained so much weight that she is now 14 and a half pounds (25th percentile)
• Started reaching for things with the intent of putting them in her mouth
• Learned to laugh a real laugh
• Demonstrated her understanding of cause and effect
• Chewed on Ninja's collar
• Gotten even stronger
• Discovered her feet
• Started to fight sleep when she's afraid she's going to miss something
• Learned how to stick out her tongue
• Charmed pretty much everyone she's met

Juliet's actions are becoming more much intentional.  She now reaches for things she wants instead of accidentally grabbing them as she flails her arms and hands around.  She's almost figured out how to get her pacifier back in her mouth correctly!  Last Sunday, Ray was holding Juliet while he looked through a magazine.  Juliet, who is fascinated with colors and patterns, grabbed the page, tore off a piece, and immediately stuck it in her mouth.  I think the coolest thing she's figured out in terms of cause and effect and deliberation is her bouncy seat.  My friend Leah gave us a seat that's similar to this.  When Juliet jumps, it lights up and plays music.  She has figured that out and pretty much consistently jumps while in it to keep up a steady stream of music and lights.  Perhaps the music can make Mama and Dad a little crazy, but if it keep her entertained while we cook supper, it's totally worth it.  Yesterday, she began reaching for the bird and banana that hang down and trying to put them in her mouth.

Another fun development this month is her understanding of peek-a-boo.  We play two different versions.  The first version involves me tossing the burp cloth over her head and asking, "Where's the baby?"  She snatches the cloth off her head and laughs and laughs when I say, "There she is!"  The other version is the traditional version where I hold something (the burp cloth, my hands, whatever's close) in front of my face and then remove it and say, "Peek-a-boo!"  She finds this hilarious and laughs her big-girl laugh.

Juliet has found her feet and is constantly grabbing them and pulling on them.  Before, we had a difficult time keeping her socks on because she would kick them off.  Now, I only bother putting socks on if it's cold and we're going outside. 

A not-so-fun change this month is her fighting sleep.  It's classic eye-rubbing and crying and jerking her head back up the second she starts to doze off.  She seems to do it most around 8:00 p.m., when she should be going down for a cat nap.  I am curious to see how this behavior changes as she gets older.  I'm hoping she'll grow out of it sooner rather than later, but I'm pretty sure I've seen lots of toddlers doing this.

One last little thing to mention... Annie and Pop are keeping Juliet until the end of April, and we have secured our nanny for May.  I am beyond thrilled.  I've been trying to get June to be our nanny since before Juliet was born, but she was working for another family who simply refused to move away.  Until now!  Having someone come and take care of Juliet at our house will be a tremendous help, especially for me when Ray is traveling for work.  And it's awesome to have someone whom we trust completely taking care of Juliet.